Here's a Preview of the Solar Eclipse Traffic Nightmare

The solar eclipse won’t take place until Aug. 21, but Oregon has already experienced a serious eclipse-related traffic jam.

A narrow stretch of U.S. Highway 26 had a line of 20 to 30 miles of traffic on Thursday for a single eclipse event, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) spokesperson Dave Thompson tells TIME, until officials helped clear the jam. The Oregon State Police tweeted out formidable photos of the endless stretch of cars, taken from above on its fish and wildlife plane.

Thompson said an event that began Thursday and is expecting 30,000 people was letting cars enter in a way that caused a bottleneck and backed up Highway 26 east of Prineville, Ore. ODOT sent out a maintenance district manager to the event, the Symbiosis Gathering, and cleared up the traffic issue by Thursday afternoon. “Luckily we got there fast,” Thompson says.